The use of apertured films in personal care products, such as feminine sanitary napkins, is well known in the art. These films may be used as body-contacting facing layers, as fluid handling layers or as other components of personal care products. When such films are used in feminine sanitary protection articles as the body-contacting facing layer, it has been generally found that the higher the open area of the film, the more effectively the film will transfer menstrual fluid to underlying layers (e.g., transfer layer, absorbent core) of the article. Unfortunately, it has also be found that the higher the open area of the film, the less effective the film is at stain “masking” the absorbed menstrual fluid once the menstrual fluid has been transferred to the underlying layers of the article. That is, the higher the open area of the film, the more visible the menstrual fluid stain will be after it is absorbed by the article.
It is object of the present invention to provided an absorbent article having improved fluid-handling properties. More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article having improved fluid handling properties while at the same time having effective stain masking characteristics.